From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter from Cadillac Motor Car Company regarding Synchromesh clatter and potential cures.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 170\2\ img197 | |
| Date | 14th August 1934 | |
| GRT. Please note Ey CADILLAC MOTOR CAR COMPANY DETROIT, MICHIGAN CADILLAC AND LASALLE MOTOR CARS August 14, 1934. Mr. W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham, Rolls-Royce, Limited, Derby, England. Dear RM{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}: Replying to yours of July 31st on Synchromesh clatter. Have asked Mr. Beringer about this and he has given a lot of useful information. It has always been more or less of a chronic complaint on the Cadillacs and is worse on the new LaSalles. Our picture is that clatter of the synchromesh sleeve is a sensitive indicator of clutch-chatter, and to confirm this, after trying everything else we can think of we get down to clutch-improvements as the only really potent cure. It appears to be due to intermittent wind-up between the clutch driven discs and the mass of the car, involving rear springs, axle, axle shafts and rear wheels, rear axle gears, propeller shaft and transmission parts. Hence, we believe it tends to be worse on Hotchkiss than on torque tube axles. We have reduced it by loosening the rear springs on their rubber pads on the axle. Also by putting sleeves over the axle shafts welded to the shaft at the outer and and pressed on a sleeve at the inner end. (Since a corresponding enlarged shaft of equivalent section gave no improvement we believe these sleeves acted as dampers on the axle shafts). Changing from 6 ply to 4 ply tires and back made no change. Rubber joints in propeller shaft or on rear of trans-mission made no real improvement. | ||